It seems that rural scenes are the new black. So soon after we blogged Yvonne Doyle’s English country scene brickshelf shows me Patrick Bosman’s Dutch Landscape. As with Yvonne, Patrick has also build off the grid to add a more organic feeling.
Posts by Gambort
Stop, collaborate and listen
A group of Brickish Association members recently collaborated on this excellent Miami themed diorama Bricksboro Beach. What is particularly impressive is how cohesive it all appears. Many collaborative dioramas look a bit pieced together but this one looks ‘whole’. I’ve linked straight to the set to ensure you can see as many details as possible. There are many and they are neat.
I’ll quote Ralph S (madphysicist) for the details of the collaboration:
Bricksboro Beach is a collaborative project built by 11 members of the Brickish Association for the Great Western LEGO show held in Swindon on October 3rd and 4th of 2009.
It started with Ed Diment (Lego Monster) and I discussing ideas for building a ‘thirties airport with hangars, planes from that era and a nice art-deco terminal building. We soon started discussion adding more art-deco buildings and not long after that we decided to drop the whole airport idea and go for a beach community similar to Miami Beach.
Ed coordinated the build and got more members involved: Stuart Crawshaw, Mandy Dee, Annie Diment, Naomi Farr, Jonathon Goldsworthy, Ian and Julie Greig, Doug Idle and Darren Smith. many of the minifig scale MOCs that i’ve built in the last two to three months were all intended for this project and I think all of us involved are justifiably well-plased with the end result of all of our work.
‘Bricktober’ at US Toys R Us
This is about the longest press release I’ve ever seen for a toy sale but I think it’s of interest to our US readers.
<SNIP!>
EDIT (AB): tl;dr indeed. Here’s the press release.
Candy coloured clown
It’s no secret that I’m fond of Pakistani trucks and it’s a love I share with Adam Grabowski (misterzumbi). Let’s face it, Adam does it better than me.
And for any doubters the bags are duplo sleeping bags.
LEGO Kids Tech Challenge
LEGO are inviting people to help contribute ideas to their KIDS Tech Conference in Northern Spring next year. Read more on the two pages linked to below.
NB. The title is a little misleading. It is for adults to submit ideas for Kids Tech, not kids to submit ideas for Tech.
Links taken from lego-adam.
Streets of London
For once I don’t have to rack my brain trying to think of a relevant song. Barney Main (SlyOwl) has already done it for me by basing a diorama on Ralph McTell’s song Streets of London. Be sure to click through the pictures in order to match the song lyrics to the diorama.
2008 Vintage
Those of us who are into trains know that Anthony Sava has been working on his Pennsylvania Railroad T1 Duplex (4-4-4-4) Steam Engine #5544 for a year and a half. We know this because Tony has been posting work-in-progress pictures, asking for advice and generally running an interactive development system for all this time.
Since many people seemed to enjoy my Anatomy of a Warehouse post where I went through some of my own building stages I think this post should appeal even more. Anthony has documented about 30 images as he has progressed in this project.
Right at the beginning he asked for advice and suggestions on the nose which elicited many responses. As one of the most prominent features of the train it is really important to get this right and I think Tony achieved this admirably in his final version.
Later on Tony used LDraw to mock up various components of the train. I assure you the vanity of the example selection was accidental.
As the train got nearer to completion (this picture is four weeks old as of today) the design began to settle down (note the differences from the CAD image above) and more refined details started to appear.
A final pre-production version was completed a few days ago. Just lacking the stickers and any final tweaks. Tony thanks many people for their help but I’d like to thank him for spending the time on this excellent creation.
And I think we can all agree this train has aged rather well since its inception.
Compartmentalised geeks
Making a good mecha is hard. Making a good carrier is hard. Making a good carrier that carries a good mecha all snugly folded is really hard. Fortunately Aran (Cole Blaq) managed to pull it off.
Can I have instructions?
For once the answer is yes.
Ronald Vallenduuk (Duq) has recently added a couple of sets of instructions to Flickr and kindly showed me how to get LPub working again. I actually reverse engineered the seat gondola many years back after seeing a picture of it and coveting it so it’s great to see Ronald making it available to all and sundry.
I used to make more instructions but had to stop for a while due to a problem I had with LPub. With Ronald’s fix I’m back and running so did some instructions for my latest.
Tim’s brief guide to Flickr groups
I’ve recently spent some time thinking about and subsequently altering some of the groups I’ve created on Flickr. In part this has come from me adapting to a new ‘user generated content’ internet but also in response to difficulties I’ve been having with new members in some of my groups. While I can deal with the former by wielding my administrator powers the latter is a bit more difficult.
As such I present the following loose guidelines to getting along in a Flickr group. These aren’t rules and they’re heavily biased to what I like to see but perhaps they’ll provide some food for thought. I welcome commentary on them as I’m keen to learn more about how to approach all this.
- Always read the guidelines of the group before joining. Some groups are free-for-alls and might not have guidelines but other’s are quite strict about what should be posted or added.
- Lurk for a bit. There’s no easier way to get a feel for a place than to see what the existing members do.
- Don’t get upset. Maybe your offering to a group isn’t what it’s interested in but that’s not a personal attack.
- Look for another group. If you don’t like how one group is run there might be a similar one with an atmosphere you prefer.
- Make your own group. If there is nothing that suits your tastes go make your own. It’s easier than whingeing about something someone else has made.
Anyway, that’s my five step program to getting along in flickr groups. I await the comments.
We love the Furry Freak brothers...
Warning! This model is 100% LEGO.
Dmac has combined practicality and raw beauty into his DT-75 tractor making a truly impressive beast. That plush seat looks so comfy I’d like to shrink myself to scale and relax.
Ultimate Brickcon Advertorial
If ever there was an incentive to go to Brickcon this would be it. NB. There are plenty of other reasons to go, but winning this would be the icing on anyone’s cake.